Prostitution Legislation: Interrogating legal models

The debate about which legal and policy approaches work best to curb the problems inherent to the sex trade, including the increase in trafficking, has been raging for decades in the UK. On one side of the debate, ‘sex workers rights’ groups, supported by international human rights lobbies including Amnesty International, have advocated for the so-called ‘New Zealand’ model which provides for the full decriminalisation of all operational aspects of prostitution (including pimping, brothel keeping and all third party exploitation). However, feminists and others argue that such a model only increases the harm caused to those on the frontline and a growing movement of sex trade survivors have joined with others to advocate the 'Nordic model'. This is a legal framework by which sex buyers are criminalised, those selling sex are decriminalised and offered exit strategies, and the sex trade is viewed as a barrier to equality between men and women.

Which approach is best for the women (and men) in the sex trade, and for wider society? Come to an event at Matrix Chambers, at which Julie Bindel, journalist and feminist campaigner, will launch her new book, 'The Pimping of Prostitution: Abolishing the Sex Work Myth' (Palgrave McMilan, 2017), and hear from Julie, who traveled 164,000 miles, conducting 250 interviews in 40 countries, cities, and states to research the topic.